Summer: the half-way summary

Exactly half-way through this summer, I am wondering where the time has gone…  Yes, I counted out the days/weeks.  I like numbers.

It seems to have at least partially gone to:

• bonfires
• sleepovers
• parties
• baseball practice
• baseball games
• house guests
• weekend trips to visit family
• a visit with a dear friend (Hi Heather!)
• time at the lake
• tubing at the lake
• fishing
• quiet hours at the coffee shop with a spiced chai
• strawberry picking
• making strawberry  jam  syrup
• picking peas
• shelling and freezing peas
• tearing apart a bathroom!

The second half will see the end of baseball, but won’t slow down!

• BIG family trip (first ever)
• camp for kids
• bathroom redo to complete
• garage to clean out and reorganize
• more time at the lake
• more fishing
• CSA harvest events
• gardening to keep up on
• freezing and canning to do
• painting

Just as I don’t know how we fit it all in the first half, I don’t really know how it will all get done in the second half.  But I think that somehow it will…

Company Girl Coffee ~ 8.6.10

Have you ever noticed that time really drags on the week before something exciting?

Starting the week feeling horrible didn’t help, I’m sure, but mostly this week has been spent in anticipation of next week.

What’s next week?  Well that would be a week of vacation!

I make it sound so exciting…and to me it is.  Don’t be disappointed to hear that I am staying home all week.  I already have eye doctor appointments scheduled for both kids, one will go to the dentist and I’m meeting with a new insurance agent and taking the cat to the vet.  There is a meeting at school and the end of the season “dinner from dirt” for the kids’ garden club.   I also will be getting re-licensed for daycare next month so I have some home projects that need done before then…I’ll spare you the gory details of re-licensing.  Suffice it to say it involves many hoops of unknown size & color and hinges on the agreeableness of a self-proclaimed overworked government worker. (Yesterday she spent 7.5 hours at a providers house pointing out a few cobwebs & reading hand soap labels.  yes.  7.5 HOURS!)

I’ve explained to the kids that I hope to work hard in the mornings and play even harder all afternoon.  When making the appointments I stacked everything on three mornings.  I love the days that I can just be a SAHM.  No people in & out by 7:30am.   No big deal if ALL food groups aren’t represented in USDA required proportions at all daytime meals and snacks…  ohhh the freedom!

These are the times it is wonderful living in a tourist area.  There are literally HUNDREDS of lakes less than an hours drive from SmallTown.  I see beaches, magazines and mugs of lemonade in the afternoons.  Grace has asked to invite friends over for a bonfire at least once.  Absolutely!

Dreaming of all the potential of next week has really slowed time this week though.  I am a little irritable with work things.  That could be because I need this time off to re-energize or it means I am really anticipating the laid-back afternoons of next week.  Either way, it is FINALLY FRIDAY!

I am thinking about prepping the bathroom at nap time today.  I really want to paint it and even have a fresh gallon of paint ready.  I figure if I can empty the decorative shelf & tape off the woodwork/trim during nap time, I could have that thing primed and painted before bed!  How cool would that be?

This day will probably be spent watching the clock.  Just a few hours until sweet freedom kicks in….

For more Company Girl Coffee visit Home Sanctuary.

The $6 Bed Skirt

A bed that needs a skirt! View from the door.

I still need to do a full review of Grace’s room redo…it looks so good now!  But I don’t have much time or many after pics right now, so that will have to wait.

There are a few things she still needs to do.  Hang things back on the walls, order new pics for the frames she has, and maybe get a photo collage or two ordered.

A bed skirt was the other thing we couldn’t find.

We decided a plain black one would be best.  With the different black & white prints we didn’t want things to get too busy.  The problem was that with her bed on risers, she needed a bedskirt with a 21 inch drop.  That is quite a bit!  Most are around 15 inches.  Average cost was $20 – $30.  Well, for something that would run short anyway I didn’t want to pay that much.

Out of necessity I made a bed-skirt once before… so I got to thinking that maybe that would be an option.

I found new black sheets (twin size – like I used before) for only $3 each!  I bought two and in 5 minutes today Grace had a new bed skirt.  I love the quick easy (and cheap) way!

Again the view from the door...much better looking now.

Textured Paint Update

work in progress

Just a quick note to say that we did get the texture sanded off Grace’s walls…it was a long process.  Her room is done (with the exception of hanging things on walls) and it looks great.  I will give more detail & photos soon!

Textured Paint

I am quickly reminded why we haven’t tackled redecorating Grace’s room before now… and I’m wondering why we’re doing it now.

When we moved in her room had been a decorated years earlier as a baby girl room.  It has mauve carpet.  ick.  The walls were a light pink on top with a rag-type paint treatment in a darker pink/mauve color.  The bottom was some comb-type texture paint treatment.  Near as I can tell it was painted the darker color then the lighter color was thickened a LOT and applied, then combed to create a striped effect.  Our problem is that half way up the wall, where the previous owners placed a lovely border of pink cabbage roses, the texture stops.

When we moved in, we had a day to paint before the movers brought everything so I scrambled to find a border to match the paint we were using and went with it.  For almost 5 years the bottom half of her room has been purple with 2 green and 2 yellow walls on top.  A tie-dyed swirl border has camouflaged the transition from smooth wall to texture.

Now she is going to make a switch to a more streamlined black and white look.  Everything is bought and we’re even replacing flooring this weekend.  The thing is, we have a timeline!  I have to have it all put back by 6:30 Tuesday morning so I can work.

We have been told that we could just sand down the texture, so we were resigned to the fact that it would be a messy job, but do-able.  Not long into it, it is evident that this could rip up the drywall too.  The sander keeps grabbing more than it should.

My hubby is out getting a haircut and then he’s going to pick up some different sand paper to see if that helps.

I washed the top half of the walls and was researching other possible ways to smooth out these walls… it seems there are two choices if the sanding doesn’t work.

1.  use a gel-type paint stripper and strip most of the paint off that way, then sand and paint (this would seriously mess with our timeline)

2.  buy smooth wall board and cover this problem up (not a great option and definitely not good for the budget)

Stay tuned for updates!  I’m sure this could get interesting…

And if you have ANY experience with this stuff  SPEAK UP!!

**I’ll add photos later